AARP agrees – Organizing information for those you love – Harris N. Hershey Rosen

by Harris N. Hershey Rosen

The AARP is one of the best sources of information on aging that you could find. AARP’s mission is to empower people to choose how they live as they age.

AARP enriches the lives of people 50 years old and over. We’ll be right by your side, advocating for you, providing health and financial tools, volunteer opportunities and a host of other discounts and benefits. AARP is your wise friend and fierce defender here to inform and to help you and your family plan for the future.

It’s clear if you are looking for information on aging issues such as retirement, financial planning, healthcare, driving, and to keep up to date on local and national advocacy (legislative) issues that will have an impact on aging, this is where you want to check – first.

Awhile back I was pleased to be featured on the AARP’s website. Here is what they wrote!

From AARP

Harris “Hershey” Rosen of Providence wrote a book. Now he wants you to write one of your own.

No, it’s not one of those “publish your own novel” schemes. Rosen’s My Family Record Book is billed as “The Easy Way to Organize Personal Information, Financial Plans and Final Wishes for Seniors, Caregivers, Estate Executors, etc.”

In short, it’s a Book of Life to leave behind for relatives and others who may be charged with putting your life in order after your life has ended.

“Don’t wait until someone dies to plan,” writes George deLodzia, Professor Emeritus at URI’s College of Business Administration in the book’s forward. “Then it’s too  late.”  Rosen and deLodzia co-taught a URI management course before Rosen became a consultant to the program’s dean.

What makes Rosen’s book unique, deLodzia says, is that “it prompts record-keepers to state information in their own words so loved ones can continue living productive lives, and that provides an executor with unambiguous instructions.”

According to Rosen, a retired New England candy manufacturing executive who graduated the Moses Brown School and Harvard University, the book is intended to ensure that an estate attorney fewer billable hours searching through a house, basement or attic for records, contracts, warranties and bills. It also holds up as a “Bible” for your final wishes.

Perhaps most important,” Rosen writes, “your survivor will know that you, the record-keeper, is still there, “trying to provide protection, still trying to make life easier — at least as easy as it can be as they deal with the sorrowful task of living without you.”

He adds that one of the reasons survivors struggle is that — in longer marriages — household roles and tasks are divided. What happens when half the team is suddenly gone? And, especially, how do you go on if a lot of information was carried in someone else’s head? When you think about, you can’t help wanting to getting it all down somewhere.

My favorite AARP articles:

From the ever popular “who”s turning 50″ among celebrities, you can get questions answered on choosing supplemental healthcare, you can access discounts on everything from gas to movies to making a hotel reservation. Travel is a big focus for AARP! And more and more they make information easy to access – relaxing podcasts and videos are a great way to deliver purposeful information. If you have time to get involved in your local AARP, I recommend it – they are always looking for letter writers and testimony-givers for local legislation that can impact our lives. And don’t forget those popular and delicious recipes. Think of a topic? Check them out – I’ll bet you can find practical and fun information there. Try it!

Hershey Rosen and his wife Myrna each have written a book and they review each other’s entries annually. And they share their books with their rabbi, executrix, accountant and estate attorney. Sound in any way morbid? Rosen adds some relief with cartoon illustrations from  The New Yorker and other sources. Another aspect of the book is way that it prompts its user to gather and preserve critical information that may not come immediately to mind.

My Family Record Book is recommended as a tool for family members and others who want to help someone capture this vital information.

Here’s a summary from Amazon.com

Much more than a check list of information, this guide helps you convey how and why decisions were made so others can make informed choices about such items as:

• How to keep the household running smoothly 
• Where to get cash and how to access financial accounts
• How to get into your computer and access passwords
• How and when to downsize
• Which ongoing services to stop and which to keep going

Whether you are planning for retirement, have aging parents, or are a caregiver or estate executor, this book will help you organize important information so everyone will feel in control and know what to do during a stressful time. 

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Harris “Hershey” Rosen, is the author of WHY? Because I Love You, a book that says it like it is – “What you need to know when I die”. His book details methods to organize your important personal and family information for those who are left behind.

A graduate of Harvard, Hershey Rosen has focused on controlling chaos since 1954. He was a Financial Control Officer in the U.S. Army, where he received a Letter of Commendation for improvement to its worldwide accounting system. Next, on to satisfying everyone’s sweet tooth, he ran a candy company for 40 years, developing a system for locating ANY item housed in five factories, covering 600,000 square feet.

Following “retirement,” Hershey went on to become a mediator and settled over 200 disputes for the state of Rhode Island and The Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island. He was also asked to team-teach management courses at the University of Rhode Island, where he enthusiastically challenged the text book with real-life experiences, to the delight and edification of the students.

Always passionate about assisting others, Hershey has been a director or trustee of numerous boards and organizations. He has written Creating A Guide So Your Loved Ones Can Go On Living! to help others protect their spouses (and families) from the intense stress that will occur if one does not share financial information and knowledge critical to a functioning home. He then wrote My Family Record Book, expanding on the information in his first book, and finally, in 2020, WHY? Because I Love You was published.

Hershey, who lives in Providence, Rhode Island, can now relax (ha!) with his beloved wife, Myrna, and enjoy visits with their combined five children and ten grandchildren.

“WHY? Because I Love You” – available here: https://amzn.to/32iXJqq